An overwhelming demand to train teachers how to react if a shooter comes into their school has prompted Oakland County's Homeland Security, Sheriff's Office and Oakland Schools intermediate district to add teacher response training instruction.

The large-scale training effort was planned in response to the Dec. 14 shooting that killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

The first scheduled session of "respond and recover" training in Oakland County set for Thursday, Jan. 24, follows not only the Sandy Hook tragedy but three more shootings in schools around the nation that have occurred since then.

The most recent one was this week at the Lone Star College campus in Texas on Tuesday.

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A fight between two people erupted in gunfire Tuesday at the Houston-area community college, catching a maintenance man in the crossfire and leaving students and others cowering in classrooms, The Associated Press reported. No one was killed.

Just a week before, on Jan. 15, there was a shooting at Hazard Community College in Hazard, Ky., where authorities said two people were shot and killed and a teen was wounded in the parking lot.

And only four days before that, on Jan. 11, a 16-year-old youth entered Taft Union High School in Taft, Calif., and shot and wounded a classmate who bullied him and killed two fellow students before a teacher and counselor faced the armed youth and talked him into giving up his gun.

This distraction allowed 28 other students to escape the classroom and prevented other shootings.

In Oakland County, teachers, administrators and staff from any district -- charter, private or parochial school -- are eligible for the training geared to protect children and themselves should a shooter enter their school.

The Thursday, Jan. 24, session and the morning and afternoon sessions on Monday, Feb. 11, already are full. There are a few spots available at the 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. session Tuesday, Feb. 19; and two new sessions are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15. All but the Thursday session will be held at the Oakland Schools administration building, 2111 Pontiac Lake Road in Waterford Township.

The training will not only cover how people can prepare themselves for a shooter event, but how law enforcement will respond and begin moving through the building, what to expect and what to do when that happens.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Sheriff Michael Bouchard, and Oakland Schools Superintendent Vickie Markavitch decided to team up to ensure that teachers and staff at schools throughout the county have the training they need should they ever encounter an active shooter.

"Dec. 14, 2012 is emblazoned on our memories forever," Patterson said in a press release.

"Many died in the Newtown, Conn. tragedy. But many others survived because teachers knew just what to do with a shooter in the building," Patterson said.

In the days following the Newtown, Conn. mass shooting, Homeland Security Division Manager Ted Quisenberry contacted Oakland Schools about collaborating on large-scale active-shooter training sessions for school personnel in Oakland County. Members of the sheriff's SWAT team will be involved in the training.

"We are fortunate to have the resources of Oakland County Homeland Security available to the local schools," Markavitch said. "The ongoing collaborations between Oakland Schools, local school districts and Oakland County government make it possible for us to work together to keep our schools and our communities safe," she said.

"It is recommended that teams of principals, secretaries, teachers and custodians, as well as central office staff overseeing safety and security of buildings be registered to participate in this invaluable training," an Oakland Schools' notice sent to all public school districts recommended.

"Active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly, which requires people on the scene to be prepared both mentally and physically while waiting for law enforcement to arrive," the notice stated.